Price Guides September 2003 IDF Edition: CPU, Motherboards and Video Cards
by Anand Shimpi & Laura Johnston on September 18, 2003 2:56 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Well, there is more than one reason to celebrate if you are an ATI fan. 9600 Pro and 9800 Pro cards are both hitting new low price points ($152 and $300 respectively). Obvious news from Half Life 2 creator Valve shot demand for the whole Radeon line overnight. On the whole, we have seen prices drop from last week, but do not expect it to last. As we mentioned on the previous page, it probably isn’t good for the consumer in the long run that we are back to 1 dominate player in the video card world.
Even though NewEgg’s deal seems almost too good to be true, don’t count out our usual weekly pick, the Sapphire 9600 Pro. We really like the 9500 Pro cards, but unfortunately supplies are really dried up. The occasional brick and mortar store might still have a 9500 Pro here and there, but it’s finally time to let the poor card go. Radeon 9500 Pro you will be missed!
Other ATI related news; the 9800SE and 9800XT lines are starting to hit store shelves at certain vendors. Unfortunately, a lot of information is still under NDA, but you can assure yourselves we will have more to come!
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Anonymous User - Thursday, September 18, 2003 - link
You could have gotten the motherboard Evan gave the Editors Choice to for $79, the EPoX 8RDA+http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.html?i=1759&am...
DBaron - Thursday, September 18, 2003 - link
Whats wrong with the Nforce single channel boards? I was all set to buy a Soltek NV400, till I read this article. It seems like a good mobo for the price , and its fairly inexpensive too...76 at new egg. Is there something I am missing?Anonymous User - Thursday, September 18, 2003 - link
geez can anyone say WHEN the 9800XT NDA will lift or is that NDA too. >:(KristopherKubicki - Thursday, September 18, 2003 - link
#3: We will add some more 9800 NP cards. They didnt really dissappear, just resellers all decided to reorganize their SKUs are the same time.KT600 and nForce2 are priced about the same and perform about the same. Dual Channel memory is the largest difference between the two. If it doesnt cost you anything more, why not?
Kristopher
Anonymous User - Thursday, September 18, 2003 - link
R9800 (non pro) is becoming widely available and should not be replaced by R9800SE becauase that's a cut down garbage version that should not be allowed to bear the R9800 name...A question on the article. Why stress the fact that The KT600 boards are single channel, when dual channel does so very little for SocketA boards in general? When looking at practical performance it basically doe not do much good at all. I'm objecting because so many people looking for motherboards believe the myth that dual channel is an important feature. Don't keep it alive.
Anonymous User - Thursday, September 18, 2003 - link
I thought the 9800np were pretty much OEM cards like for Dell, etc? I didn't think the 9800np was nearly as common as the 9700np, 9500np, etc...I imagine the 9800SE will replace the non pro though.
Anonymous User - Thursday, September 18, 2003 - link
No comment about the disappearance of the ATI 9800 non-pro cards?